The Queen who Challenged the Symbolic Order of Ancient Egypt

Limestone statue of Hatshepsut as Pharaoh

The Nile flows even today through the plains of Africa as she did thousands of years ago through the valley of the kings where a great woman once challenged the patrilineal throne. She is known as the first great woman in history of whom we are informed, a great Pharaoh who ruled Egypt during a time of great prosperity whose legacy could not be erased despite the attempts taken by one of her successors to eradicate her from history.

Hatshepsut, meaning "the foremost of the noble women", was born into the 18th  Dynasty of ancient Egypt’s new kingdom. She was the daughter of the great Thutmose the first and his primary wife Ahmose. Being of legitimate birth, had she not been a woman, she would have been next in line to the throne. However, after her father's death, young Hatshepsut was married to Thutmose the second, her half brother, in order to legitimate the throne and preserve the purity of the royal blood line. Thutmose the second was a son of a minor wife. In fact, he was a frail leader with a deteriorating health, which might have given more freedom to Hatshepsut to engage in the political affairs of the kingdom. Despite being a woman much affiliated to the royal bloodline and rightful to the throne, she might have remained in the shadow of her husband occupying the role of the great royal wife even though she helped him govern the country.

After twenty years of reign, Thutmose the second died, leaving the kingdom to the six year old crown prince, Thutmose the third, who was born to one of his royal concubines as Hatshepsut only bore a daughter who was named Neferure. After the Pharaoh’s death, it was Hatshepsut's responsibility to take political matters into her hands as the Pharaoh's primary wife. As a result, she became the regent of her step son and nephew who would eventually grow up to take the crown. Hatshepsut ruled the country for six years as the regent. During that time, she initiated one of the major construction projects of the history of the valley, the mortuary temple of Hatshepsut in Deir el Bahri. This magnificent temple complex reflects her majesty and leadership skills and hints at a great civilization. However, she must have realized the limited span of time she had to rule the kingdom, as the crown prince was coming of age, because she did something quite daring in her sixth year as the regent. She made a bold political move challenging the symbolic order of the ancient royalty, something she was not supposed to do as a woman. Hatshepsut cross-dressed as the Pharaoh, wore the king's beard to symbolize her legitimacy to the throne and became the 5th Pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty of ancient Egypt.

Mortuary temple of Hatshepsut in Deir el Bahri

Nearly three thousand years after her reign, the feminized statue of a Pharoh puzzled the 19th century Egyptologists, a Pharaoh with a delicately contoured face, full cheeks and defined breats yet with the same grace, power and the magnificence of any other pharaoh. It is puzzling even to this day whether she deceived the general public into believing she was a man through crossdressing, or whether that was merely symbolic and ritualistic. The 19th century archeologists were perplexed by the feminized kingly titles on the walls of the mortuary temple that were traditionally supposed to be in the masculine. She has not hidden her gender in the inscribed official records on the walls of her temple and that suggests she wanted her legacy to be known as an unstoppable woman and a powerful Pharaoh.

Hatshepsut's cartouche

She made the crown prince Thutmose the third, the leader of the Army, who eventually succeeded her, implying a wise decision to stop him from claiming the throne and causing political tension in the kingdom. perhaps, she also intended to groom the young prince to be a great Pharaoh in the future. Her ruling period was a great success, a period of economic growth and peace. It is recorded on the walls of her temple that she launched a sea voyage, a trade expedition to Punt, modern day Ethiopia, to find exotic luxuries.

An illustration of the trade expedition to Punt

However, most of the texts that recorded her ruling period had been erased from history, her statues and portraits defaced. The reason remains a mystery even to this day. However it can be seen that the disruption she caused to the symbolic order of the Egyptian royalty resulted in someone who came after her from leading a campaign to eradicate her legacy from history to restore the previous patrilineal order. Hatshepsut's tale does not fail to fascinate the world. She is surrounded with a number of controversies. One of which is her unusual relationship with the commoner and the royal architect, Senenmut. Senenmut was first recorded in history as the tutor and the steward of Hatshepsut's daughter, Neferure.Later, he was raised to the position of the high steward of the king after Hatshepsut ascended the throne. His title reads, "the overseer of royal affairs". The great obelisks beside the red chapel at the entrance to the Karnak temple were constructed and erected under the supervision of Senenmut.

An obelisk

He was given a significant amount of privilege and a prestigious position than any other person of common birth in ancient Egypt. Dozens of Senenmut's portraits appear in Hatshepsut's tomb worshipping her, hinting at an unusual honour granted upon a commoner like him. There is a tomb dedicated to Senenmut in the precincts of Hatshepsut's mortuary temple. There, his burial chamber runs deeper towards the direction of Hatshepsut's tomb, as if they wanted to be closer to each other even in the afterlife. Further complicating their relationship, an illustration of a man having sexual intercourse with a woman who is wearing the pharonic headpiece was found on the walls of a cave near her temple. Some historians suggest that they might have been lovers. It was no surprise that a daring woman like Hatshepsut would explore every dimension of her power, freedom and pleasure, and fall for a man of great talent like Senenmut, whose genius and artistry are evident in his masterpiece, the mortuary temple of Hatshepsut and the astrological star maps on the ceiling of his tomb. In fact, Senenmut seems to have been unmarried all his life. There is no woman painted in his tomb beside his portraits which is quite uncommon for a man in ancient Egypt. It can be said that it was his desire to serve no other woman but the queen, perhaps the woman he loved the most.

Senenmut

Hatshepsut is believed to have passed away in the 22nd year of her reign, in her middle age. Her death was caused by bone cancer as her possible mummified body has revealed. Even though there was an organized attempt to erase her from the line of Pharaohs, there is no evidence that suggests anyone rebelling against her during her reign. Perhaps, no one dared to challenge the woman who rightfully enthroned herself, the woman who conquered the sea, and the great Pharaoh Hatshepsut, the daring queen of the Nile.

Devindani Devage.